Scene #2022: Bronx Bank Boogie

Owner	Pose
Rebound	New York City. There's a lot of variations of this place in the Multiverse, but this one is new. Dark, gritty, and right now in the Bronx there's a bunch of New York's finest surrounding a bank. It's a relatively small brach, all things considered. The guys inside probably figured it was going to be an easy score. Boy were they wrong. Inside of the bank proper, there's at least a half dozen guys, if not more. Two of them are near the door, looking out of the closed blinds at the cops. Two more are trying to crack the vault using a drill of some kind, and the other two that can be seen have been taking out security cameras. They do have a hostage, a night watchman who got caught by surprise. Older guy, maybe late 50s or early 60s, who looks like he really doesn't want to be there. The gang itself seems to be mostly wearing black and purple and the whole crew is definitely of Asian decent, hence the Purple Dragons name. "This is Detective Williamson of the NYPD!" That would be the voice over the bullhorn from the cop cars outside of the bank, "Listen, we just want to talk. All I want is to make sure nobody gets hurt, okay?"
Staren	Staren was totally not in catform curled up in a sunbeam when the alert went out, nope. You weren't there, you can't prove it! As he gets ready to go out and suits up in his armor, he chatters a bit on the radio, but then it's off through the warpgates... He teleports into an alley, then approaches the police, hands held up, one showing his Union Elite Forces ID. "Hi. I'm with the Union. If this..." He glances at the bank, "...isn't going to resolve peacefully, I may be able to help."
Corona Arclite	Bank Robbery. Guess some things really don't change no matter what world you're in. But Purple Dragons? No body said anything about Purple Dragons ... Goddammit there has got to be a better way to index all these New Yorks! She was going to visit the clocktower so she could be there when Brooklynn and his clan woke up for the night, but by the sound of it she's wandered into the wrong version of the city. "Well that figures." Corona huffed at her receiver device after picking up the police band calls, adjusted her hat and pulled up the collar of the duster she'd worn to keep her not-human appearance under wraps while she was on the streets. Thankfully under the jacket she also had her guns and other gadgetry as well. Tracing the police calls, the bank wasn't far from where she ended up. Fancy that. With a shrug she closed the device and stuffed it in a pocket as she headed for the incident's location. "Ain't home, but I guess it's still time to go play cowboy."
Vervi	Amidst the human sized or possibly even larger parties who respond to the incident at this particular New York bank, there's an unexpectedly small contribution. A tiny pinpoint of blue light sails down from the sky, banking lazily over the gathered police vehicles. A closer look reveals the light to be coming from the twin jet engines mounted to the back of a tiny girl, no more than fifteen centimeters tall, wearing armor that looks like ti was made out of a space-age jet aircraft. With Staren already present, Vervi swings her legs forward and decelerates, landing lightly on the cat-genius' shoulder and balancing easily on the knife points she calls boots. "Vervi is here to help! I may be small, but please rely on my size and firepower if you need it!"
Finna	Any gang calling itself 'Purple Dragons' is weird enough to attract Finna's attention. So is it any surprise that there's a fox on the ceiling-- errr wait, let's go back a few steps there. How did Finna get in? As an insect, of course. But now she's a fox. A fox with a glorious coat of thick white fur. She's walking calmly across the ceiling, completely upside-down, pacing impatiently above the hostage. Scheming.
Rebound	"C'mon man, there's a whole mess of cops out there. How the heck are we gonna get out of here?" One of the Dragons looks at the two that have finally breached the vault and are heading inside to start to load up money into duffel bags. The first one, who seems to be in charge, looks back at the door, "We brought the bombs right? We'll head down into the basement and blow a hole into the sewers and get out that way. Just keep the cops distracted until we get it set up." Outside, Staren and Vervi's arrival gets the attention of a lot of the cops, so there's a pretty good distraction. The detective with the bullhorn who seems to be in charge, moves towards Staren and looks him over for a bit. This detective is a pretty big guy, probably been a cop for nearly twenty years from the looks of him, "The Union? Never heard of that unit, but looking at that gear it's gonna be some kinda military thing, right?" He asks, "Look all we know for sure is they have a hostage, some night watchman in the wrong place at the wrong time. We're trying to get him out before we go in." There's a flash of movement through the light of the police cars light bars and headlights. It was only a brief glimpse and then it was gone, but if anyone was looking close enough, something just landed on the roof of the bank.
Corona Arclite	"Y'all do realize yer just doin' what they want sittin' out here doin' nuttin', right?" The hat and duster cover her up pretty good, but Staren would probably pick up the familiar drawl as she ambles up to the police lines. "Once they got what they want, they ain't gonna care 'bout the fella." There's a pause as her hearing picks up a sound overhead, like someone landing after a jump. But it's quick and gone. Corona gives the brim of her hat a tug. "All the same. M'be y'all better let us handle this." Almost casually she walks past the cops to get closer to the doors. Reachs into her duster. And pulls out a rather hefty shotgun, the Forge Sweeper's choking mechanism sliding forward into place, as she points it towards the doors and fires. The plasma blast should make quick work of the doors. Though Corona is counting more on the concussion blast of it doing so knocking the crooks at the door out for a loop and giving others a chance to move it. "Hostage means nothin' to them if it doesn't stop you from stoppin' em."
Vervi	Perched on Staren, Vervi pauses. The ear-like pods on her head twitch and she glances over her shoulder, towards the police blockade. Engines flaring, she floats up and turns around completely, glancing from side to side, "Hmm?" Cradling one elbow in her other hand, she cradles her chin with her fingertip tapping her lips, "..Did something just flash across my radar..?" She turns her head again, glancing up at the top of the bank, then rotates in midair, "Ah, mister Staren?" Vervi points, "I'll enter from the top while miss Corona charges from the front. There should be a skylight up there I can get through and catch them by surprise." A little nod, "And then we can save the guard before they know what hit them!" Engines flare brighter and the tiny VerVietta soars skyward in a smooth arc for the roof. Of course it's also a chance to check up on whether she actually did detect something or if her radar might need recalibration.
Staren	Staren nods. Since they haven't heard of the Union... well, now is not the time to explain, so whatever they've mistaken him for will have to do for now. "Alright. For now I'll stick to recon, then." He reaches into his bag, then pulls his hand out with four little insect-sized drones on it. They take off and fly around and over the bank, looking for a way in. It shouldn't be long before they enter the same way Finna did, and then Staren can get eyes on the criminals and have the layout of the bank on his HUD... Then Corona blows through the doors. "Oh hell!" Well, so much for that! He pulls a Federation phaser out of his bag, set to stun mode, and charges in, shooting any crooks he sees until he can make it to the hostage, though he'll stop and plan if they threaten to seriously harm or kill the poor guy.
Rebound	So much for subtle! The explosion tears the doors off of the hinges and makes the Purple Dragons run for cover, "Crap, the cops are moving in!" One of them yells, bailing away from the hostage and heading for the basement. These aren't exactly career criminals. One of the punks grabs the hostage and has a knife, backing himself up against a wall, "Back off! I'll cut this guy!" The two guys inside the vault come rushing out with the bags of money after the explosion, "I thought we weren't blowing our way out until we were done!" One of them yells, only to see the confusion going on. That's when something drops in from above them. Rebound falls from the skylight above the vault door and lands right in front of the two Purple Dragons. They look up at the big 'roo, and then she smirks, "Boys I don't think that belongs to you. Lets put it back." The kangaroo mutant hauls back onto her tail and uses both feet to kick outwards, catching both of the gang members in the chest and sending them flying backwards, back into the vault. She kicks the door closed and spins the handle to re-lock it, before turning back to the chaotic scene unfolding, "What in the blue hell is going on now?! Who are you people!?"
Finna	With someone bursting in straight through the front door all loud and ballsily, Finna's tempted to facepalm. However, she cannot! Not as a fox, anyways. But what she CAN do is take action! So she drops. Silently. With Rebound causing a mess, she descends... SOMEHOW using her tail like some kind of impossible rudder to guide her descent! She lands RIGHT on the knife guy's head. At the same time her tail strikes out like a cobra, EXTENDING and curling around his arm and hand and squeezing with prodigious strength until one might ALMOST hear bones start cracking. Adding insult to injury, dude's head is going to be getting awfully wet and stinky really fast.
Corona Arclite	"Just some passerbyes that decided to lend a hand," Corona replies casually as she blows some fumes off the barrel of her weapon and starts to tuck it back under her duster. Then notices one of the guys that had been by the doors starting to get back up. "Ya got up from that? Not bad. Hats off to ya." To which she actually pulls off her hat, and shoves it in the guy's face to blind him, and push him backwards over one of the bank desks. "Now why don't ya sit a spell and -stay- down like a good boy." Of course with the hat off it's quite clear that the foxgirl's not a human either.
Staren	Staren stops shooting and holds his hands up (still holding the phaser) when the thug threatens to cut the hostage. He's sure an ally will do something any moment-- When Finna makes her move, he starts shooting remaining thugs, then moves to pull the hostage away. If he's tied up, Staren cuts the rope with careful use of his phaser. "The entrance is clear. Get out of here!" Then he faces Rebound. "We're with the Union. We're here to help." He glances around. "Who are /you/?"
Vervi	As she soars over the bank's roof, Vervi lowers her hands. There's a flicker of rainbow-tinged white light as her rifle appears from the Slipway, and she runs a mental check on her armor-mounted weapons. With a nod, the shinki banks sharply through a conspicuously open skylight. Vervi's arrival in the foyer is about right on time to see a kangaroo woman kick the crap out of some guys and Finna to do her flying fox trick. Rather than join the combat, though, Vervi banks again and circles, scanning the situation carefully. A transmission from Corona points something out and the shinki lifts her free hand in a quick salute before banking out of her circling formation and diving through the door into the stairwell that leads down to the basement at top speed, trailing a line of blue exhaust.
Rebound	The Purple Dragons have no idea what hit them when the Unionites strike. The ones knocked over by the exploding door are sent reeling, and the one that manages to get back up soon finds himself thrown back over a desk by the fox girl. One more vanishes down into the basement, only to get pursued by Vervi. He doesn't even see her because he's looking for a way out of the basement, he should be easy pickings for her, even if he does have a gun. The guy holding the hostage finds himself wrapped up by a fox, his arm getting pulled and forcing him to drop the knife, as his head becomes wet in a very uncomfortable fashion. He starts flailing around and then trips over his own feet, crashing down into a desk. He's out for the count too. The last one that had been by the door was getting up before Staren put him back down with the phaser. The hostage runs for the police line, leaving the Union members and Rebound as the only ones still standing. The kangaroo peers at the group of them, "The Union?" She asks, "Never heard of it." She looks over at Corona closely, "You a mutant too?" She wonders aloud to the fox girl, not identifying herself to them just yet, "We got these guys cleaned up. We should get out of here before the cops move in. The ESU is no joke."
Staren	Staren lowers his phaser but doesn't put it away yet. "The ESU? Why do we have to fear the cops?"
Finna	With her mount toppling over, Finna executes a swift front flip forward and off the guy. She lands on all fours with tail retracting back to normal size. "Weaklings and morons, the lot of 'em! 'Oooooh, we've got guns! How scary!'" With the best mocking tone she can manage, the fox triumphantly prances out towards the door... but stops next to Rebound and the others. "Didn't we just do their job FOR them? They oughtta be happy!"
Vervi	One last guy, in the basement of a bank, is pursued by what is best described as a tiny blue cyber-fairy. While he scrambles to and fro, Vervi chases, banking corners and following red indicators darting about her vision thanks to her flight radar. When no less than ten different points in her line of sight all flash green, the shinki tucks her arms in and opens up numerous ports on her arm, leg, and chest armor, as well as along the engines and wings of her flight pack. There's a loud, rapid hissing as Vervi herself is engulfed in rocket exhaust. Dozens of micro missiles dash out for various points on the back of the crook's body. They don't impact and then explode. No, they explode a short distance away, so it's more like getting punched in the back of the Everything about thirty times.
Corona Arclite	"Mutant? Not sure what yer talkin' 'bout miss." Idly Corona leans over the desk to retrieve her hat from the thug's face. "But I get some worlds ain't all that fond of ... different sorts like us." She puts the stetson back on her head and adjusts the brim. "Iffen she says we should scoot and let the authorities finish cleanin' up, we should pro'ly getalong."
Rebound	"Just trust me on this one." Replies Rebound, "We should get somewhere away from here." She's done the best she can to make sure she stays out of the spotlight, last thing she wants is to ruin her record now. She motions for the skylight she came in from and with one leap goes up and out it, back onto the roof. Vervi's micro-missiles find their target. The poor gang banger doesn't stand a chance as he gets peppered with multiple explosives, going down in a heap not far from the explosives him and his gang had brought to make their great escape. This bank won't be getting an explosive renovation anytime soon thanks to her.
Corona Arclite	"That girl's got more jump than a spring snake on a sugah high." Corona watchs the roo leap for the rooftop, then pulls out one of her chain grapplers and fires it up at the edge of the skylight. "Goin' up!" The chain reeling back in hauls her up and away to the rooftop as well.
Staren	Staren tilts his head. "Very well." He pulls a camera drone from his bag, and then turns to offer Corona a lift -- oh, she's got it covered. He manifests orange, insectoid /energy wings/ and flies up. Once they're clear, the drone will fly out the front door and announce: "The threat has been neutralized. Two of them are locked in the vault. We will leave the rest to you, officers." Before flying off.
Vervi	Vervi comes to a halt, hovering over the smoldering unconscious form of the dude she just blew to hell. With a little sigh, she swings her rifle up and dismisses it back into the Slipway in a flicker of light. Her headpiece wiggles again and the tiny robot glances upward. There's a little nod and she turns in place, accellerating quickly back through the basement, up the stairs, and across the lobby of the bank until, trailing blue exhaust, Vervi emerges through the skylight on the heels of the others.
Finna	Despite NOT being a kangaroo, Finna somehow manages to just LEAP straight up and out of the skylight too. She lands nimbly on the roof and croons victoriously... only to hop on Corona's shoulder moments later and barking. As if to say, 'forward march!'
Rebound	A couple more rooftops later and they're clear. The officers move in and arrest the Purple Dragons, and Rebound can now talk to the Union members in peace, "Okay, so I suppose I owe you all a name at least. You can call me Rebound." The kangaroo looks over the wide variety of responders from the Union, "So just what is this Union? I don't really follow. I mean you're not cops, you're definitely not with the Dragons, if that show you put on is any indication. You some kind of new group?" They're not the first group of crime fighters she's encountered in the city, but she still has no idea where they are. That one guy's tech looks alien, and she has no idea what to say in regards to little robot girls or non-mutant foxes.
Corona Arclite	"One of ya talky types wanna explain?" She probably means you, egghead. I mean Staren. Corona takes out a pair of retro looking binoculars and holds them up to her eyes, watching the bank entrance as the cops are hauling out the Dragons they left indisposed inside. "Looks like they rounded up all of 'em. Maybe we shoulda tied em up with a pretty bow before we left."
Staren	Staren nods slightly. "And you can call me Staren, researcher of problems for the Union. I mean... just 'Staren' when you call me it, the title is unofficial and kind of awkward." He reaches up and takes his helmet off. "We're from another world. Your world has unified into the Multiverse, a... basically a giant super-universe containing countless other worlds. The Union and the Confederacy are... super-factions consisting of the allied forces of countless worlds. I'm, um... I'm not really sure where to start. I know lots of stuff, but I'm better at just answering questions than summarizing everything down."
Finna	"Finna! ... and sounds like the talky science boy's got it covered. I just dropped in to see if anyone calling themselves 'Purple Dragons' was actually worth something. Creeps weren't worthy of the term 'dragon,' that's for sure. A real gang worthy of th name would've just carted the whole building off or something!" What.
Vervi	"My name is Vervi," the tiny robot announces, swinging her legs down and gently alighting on Staren's shoulder once more. While not holding on to him, she manages perfectly precarious balance on those pointed boots, "I'm a VerVietta shinki, MMS Type Vic Viper, a robot companion for humans." With a bright smile, she adds, "It's nice to meet you, miss Rebound!"
Rebound	"Yeah. Maybe they'll build a giant underground tank that can suck whole buldings down into it." Rebound says to Finna, as she laughs, "So this Multiverse thing is kinda like the dimension those aliens who showed up last year came from?" She asks as she looks to Staren, "Except bigger, I'm guessing, if you have this Union and Confederacy vying for control. I'm guessing those names aren't coincidental and you guys are the, uh...Well, good guys. Or at least close to it." Rebound turns to look at Vervi and smiles, "Well it's good to meet you. I don't think we have too many robots running around here. At least none I've come across yet." She says, rubbing her muzzle a bit, "I was hoping to take those guys down without any incident, but they tripped the alarm because the Purple Dragons are, well...A lot of them are pretty bad at their jobs. I mean hell, they've been trying to kill me for months."
Corona Arclite	"Arclite. Corona Arclite," replies the foxgirl over her shoulder while they're doing introductions. Then idly pulls her transmitter device out of a pocket and pops it open since it's still tuned to the local radio frequencies. -- I'm telling you Chief, she blew the door off with that gun. With one shot. With a -gun-. -Just relax and worry about the gang members, officer. We'll get... professionals to look into the unusual firearms.- "Heh. Sounds like I made an impression. Take it guns ain't all that high tech 'round here."
Staren	Staren tilts his head the other way. "I don't know anything about aliens that showed up a year ago." His drones start searching for free wif--oh god it's 1987 there isn't any this world is so backwards Staren frowns slightly, for a fraction of a second. He shrugs, "The Multiverse is pretty big. The Union and Confederacy, big as they are, are only active in this /sector/. Which is like a little slice of the spherical universe pie. As for good and bad... we like to think so, but I'd say it's more accurate that the Union's primary value is freedom, and the Confederacy's primary value is power. However, on an individual level, everyone is different. Sometimes, both factions work together to help a world, and there are a few nice people with the Confederacy for various reasons, and even among the 'bad guys', they aren't all, like, marauders that go around slaughtering innocents and taking their stuff. Although they have a few of those. Conversely, the Union has its occasional jerks," he holds his hand against his chestplate, "and I for one am terrible at respecting any culture that prioritizes things like politeness or tradition over personal welfare because I think that's wrong, but we all mean well and want to help people." There's a reason Staren is not a Union recruiter. "There is also the Syndicate, which doesn't serve any faction-wide goal so much as being a service to help match jobs with people who can do them, whatever their factional affiliation or lack thereof." He tilts his head again. "Why are they trying to kill you? Ah, probably because you stopped them once? Hmm." He scratches his head. "By the way, if you haven't already guessed, I don't know if people here care that you're a kangaroo lady, but we don't. I hope it's obvious, but just to be clear. The Multiversal community is welcoming of all species."
Corona Arclite	"At least yer honest about it," Corona comments without looking back. Finally she clicks her transmitter off, switching over to the device's PDA-style functions. "... This world must of just recently unified," she murmurs as she walks back to the others. "Entirely different New York than I intended to visit. But guess its good I came along anyways."
Finna	"How about I simplify that for you!" Finna exclaims, hopping from Corona and onto Staren's head. Stuffing her tail straight in his face! "The Union's run by a bunch of worlds that value individual rights and liberties. The Confederacy's mostly run by tyrants and dictators and prioritizes power above everything else. The two don't generally get along."
Staren	Staren blinks at Corona. "Why wouldn't I be? It wouldn't be right to make her make decisions on partialpfffffpt!" he tries to gently brush the tail away from his face. "Hey! Isn't that what I said?!"
Finna	"Words are like money!" Finna declares, tail wrapping gently around Staren's neck as she slides off and promptly dangles in front of him like some kind of animal amulet. "The more of them around, the less meaning each has. You gon on a rant and people'll fall asleep before they get what you have to say!"
Rebound	"They tried to kill me because I wouldn't throw a fight while I was still human." She replies, "I used to be a normal human. They..Did this to me. I'm not sure how. Some kinda green glowing...Stuff." She says, looking the group over a bit more, "This Union thing sounds pretty interesting, I suppose...Especially if I don't have to run around in the shadows and skulk around on rooftops." She says, looking over at Corona, "Yeah guns don't pack quite that much of a punch without it being an RPG."
Corona Arclite	"Well, these folks can help ya get set up iffen ya like." Corona shrugs off her duster coat and discards it, so she can use the small pack strapped to her back that was underneath it. "Ah was suppose to be meetin' other folks when Ah wandered in. Y'all take care now." She gives the group a nod with her hat as she steps onto the edge of the rooftop, and then hops off of it. It's okay, she comes back up a few moments later after the glider wings have unfolded and she uses her boot steam-jets to propel herself farther up into the air.
Staren	Staren looks down at Finna. "Leaving words and details out is misleading." he lifts her up with hands so all her weight doesn't have to hang from his neck. It takes a moment for him to get what Rebound means. Throw a fight when she was human? ...Oh. "...I see. Are you saying you want to join and... help out on operations across the Multiverse? We can put you in touch with a recruiter."
Rebound	"Yeah, I mean...You guys were helping me out, I'd be willing to help you out. Of course I'm gonna need help around here too." She says, as she looks back at Staren, "For sure I'm happy to help out where I can."
Finna	Finna grumbles faintly to herself... but swings around and WHOOOOOOOAH goes from really light to DANG -kinda- heavy. Because within about two seconds she's shapeshifted to her human shape, arms draped around Staren's neck from behind and leaning her body over a shoulder while standing on her tippytoes. "Don't let this guy bore you! We'd love to have some spirited folk around!"